Extinct species of tortoise
Chelonoidis alburyorum giant tortoise that lived in the Lucayan Archipelago (including The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands ) from the Late Pleistocene to around 1400 CE.[ 1] [ 2]
Name
The specific epithet , alburyorum , is in honor of Bahamian naturalist Nancy Ann Albury .
Fossil
The shell of C. alburyorum was 47 cm (19 inches) in length. Fossils of the species were discovered in Sawmill Sink , a blue hole . Other sites where C. alburyorum fossils have been found include cave systems and an inland deep blue sink hole.[ 3]
Extinction
C. alburyorum was the last-surviving of the West Indian Chelonoidis , persisting up to 1170 CE on the Abacos , up to 1200 CE on Grand Turk , and up to 1400 CE on the Middle Caicos , just under a century prior to European colonization of the islands .[ 3] [ 4]
References
^ "Florida Museum" . Florida Museum . Retrieved 2022-05-19 .^ "Fossilworks: Chelonoidis alburyorum" . Paleobiology Database . Retrieved 2022-05-19 .^ a b Kehlmaier, Christian; Barlow, Axel; Hastings, Alexander K.; Vamberger, Melita; Paijmans, Johanna L. A.; Steadman, David W.; Albury, Nancy A.; Franz, Richard; Hofreiter, Michael; Fritz, Uwe (11 January 2017). "Tropical ancient DNA reveals relationships of the extinct Bahamian giant tortoise Chelonoidis alburyorum " . Proceedings of the Royal Society B . 284 (1846): 20162235. doi :10.1098/rspb.2016.2235 . PMC 5247498 PMID 28077774 . ^ Turtle Extinctions Working Group (Rhodin, A.G.J., Thomson, S., Georgalis, G., Karl, H.-V., Danilov, I.G., Takahashi, A., de la Fuente, M.S., Bourque, J.R., Delfino, M., Bour, R., Iverson, J.B., Shaffer, H.B., and van Dijk, P.P.). 2015. Turtles and tortoises of the world during the rise and global spread of humanity: first checklist and review of extinct Pleistocene and Holocene chelonians. Archived 2019-07-18 at the Wayback Machine Chelonian Research Monographs 5(8) doi :10.3854/crm.5.000e.fossil.checklist.v1.2015
